Sykes Continues To Have Her Say

Popular Comedian Lends Her Voice To Kids' Film That She Thinks Will Have People Talking.

May 25, 2006|By Jen Chaney The Washington Post

Wanda Sykes has publicly proclaimed that she doesn't like kids. In fact, she wrote those very words -- "I don't like kids" -- in her 2004 book, Yeah, I Said It.

So it seems a bit out of character for the famously blunt stand-up comedian and actress to be the voice of a skunk in Over the Hedge, an animated movie undeniably aimed at the under-11 set.

Clearly, some clarification is needed. Wanda, is it still true? Do you really resent tykes and toddlers that much?

"At that point in time when I wrote the book, I was being honest and saying, `I don't want kids, you know, I don't like kids,'" she explains. "But you change. You grow older. The more you live, you have different experiences. So to answer your question ... I still don't like kids, no."

She bursts into hearty laughter, and it's impossible not to join her. Because, let's face it, Sykes -- the woman who stole the comedy Monster-in-Law out from under Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez, who gives Larry David a run for his funny-money every time she appears on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and who Entertainment Weekly called one of America's 25 funniest people in 2004 -- is pretty darn hilarious.

But for a woman whose stage-and-screen persona conveys pure don't-mess-with-me attitude, Sykes is fairly reserved and often serious in person. Which is why she follows up her kidding about kids (and she was kidding ... we think) with more earnest words about her first major foray into animated cinema.

"It's very cool to be part of a film that the whole family can go to ... and the kids will laugh at it for one reason and the parents will laugh at it for another reason," she says of Hedge, which explores the oddities of suburban life through the eyes of woodland creatures. "It's going to at least spark some type of dialogue where the kids are going to ask their parents about a few things. Like, `Why do we throw this stuff out?' and `Why do we have this big truck and there's only two of us riding in it?'"

Sykes seems sincerely excited about voicing Stella, a spunky skunk who isn't afraid to stink up a joint if the situation requires it.

"She's a victim of being profiled," Sykes says of her character. "People see her and it's all about her physicality. They don't want to be around her. They run away. They just have this negative opinion of her just from her appearance. So, you know, I can relate to that."

It's hard to imagine anyone running away from Sykes these days. This summer, she can be heard in Hedge, which opened Friday, and another animated feature, Barnyard, and seen in the comedies My Super Ex-Girlfriend and Clerks II. But even with all those movie credits, Sykes still sees live comedy as the core of her career.

"I love doing stand-up, and I'm able to make my living doing stand-up," she says. "So I have the opportunity to only take projects that appeal to me."

At 42, Sykes -- who grew up in Gambrills, Md., once worked for the National Security Agency and at 5 feet 2 is more petite than her oversize personality would indicate -- seems happy with her current situation.

Of course, she still has a few goals. She would love to host Saturday Night Live, and much as she likes playing the wisecracking sidekick, she hopes to star in her own film someday.

What she doesn't want to do, ever again, is write a book.

"They said, `We want your hour special, Tongue Untied. We want that in book form,'" she says of what became Yeah, I Said It. "I said, `Oh, OK. Fine. I can do that. I got that, no problem.' I did it and I was like, `God, that's only 10,000 ... how many words is this? I owe them, like, 60,000 words? Oh, my God.'"